Facets of Faith

Welcome to FACETS of Faith and our team of friends, who also happen to write with one another. Our goal remains to engage in authentic friendship and life, often explored through writing.  We were friends first. We have met new ones like you who read and engage with us.  Thank you!  We are blessed to have you stop by, and we pray God meets you each time you do. Like a seed, we pray God brings His work in and through you (and us) to full blossom.

This month we mull over the topic:  How Will You Spring Forward with God?

In like a lion, out like a lamb.

It’s right about now we hanker for melting snow, warmer weather, and spring blossoms, not to mention color variation which includes a spectrum other than white.  However, we have a few more weeks of fluffy (or frozen) white stuff and winds that still cut to the bone no matter how many years we live to see a season change.

We can get a sense of false hope the weather has broken and spring’s arrival is surely here with an unseasonably sunshine infused warm day. But then March roars like a lion to remind us spring is on its way but hasn’t sprung yet. Winds fierce and strong cause us to wonder whether we can hold out for spring’s tulips to greet us as they gently wave in the wind. Oh, fragrant flowers and lush green grass we long for you to come!  Will the weather ever shift?

Doesn’t our walk with God sometimes feel like that?

We want roses, no thorns.

We want run the race, not perseverance.

We want Jesus to calm the storm. No winds. No waves.

We want what we want when we want it (especially if we’re from the western world comprised of short attention spans and instant gratification).  We’re all for, how to lose 10 lbs in 10 days. We don’t want the wait to lose the weight. We don’t want the work to lose the weight. If the wind wanted to do anything useful, it could blow those fluffy extra pounds off.

Oh, if wishes could only do that, we’d all have the self-image we want.  (Or would we?)

I’d like to talk about three strategies to help us spring forward with God in spite of life’s storms, because when storms arise, we need a good plan to weather them well!

Pray in Advance of a Storm to Spring Forward With God

While wishes won’t do us much good, prayer will. We can pray for things big. We can pray for things small. And then we can lean in with God and do the work He calls us to do – the stuff that requires perseverance even when the winds seem as if they might blow us over.

We’ve all had those moments. Earth shaking. Soul piercing. The experiences that require digging our feet deep into nutrient rich soil, so we won’t get blown over during a storm that comes into our life like a lion.

There is a lion. He seeks to destroy.

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.─1 Peter 5:8 NLT

There is a lion who loves stirring up a good storm. We need to prepare ourselves in the quiet, restful seasons of life for the storms the enemy will surely try to send our way.  We need to create the muscle memory of going to God each day with our prayers and petitions.

The habit of prayer during quiet seasons helps us when the weather shifts. We won’t have to wonder what to do or who to run to. We’ll already know. We will have established a healthy rhythm of connecting with God each day.

And sometimes our prayers can help us avoid a storm all together!  After all, it’s in prayer we learn to hear God’s voice. We can seek Him and His wisdom and avoid a pitfall or two because we listened and obeyed, and  He lead us to green pastures.

But sometimes the storm still comes.

In those instances, we can run to our habit of prayer, where we know God is at the helm of our lives.  He is our Lighthouse. He helps us weather storms well.

How will we get out of inclement weather? God speaks to us through prayer as we seek Him. His answer may be in that moment. His answer may come another way, or at another time.  Because, remember, we are to run our race with perseverance.  That means sometimes the answer isn’t right now, in the moment.

Why wouldn’t God answer a heartfelt prayer in the moment? Is He just trying to be mean? Is He an authoritative, domineering, do what I say or else type of God?  Hardly!  He’s God – full of grace and mercy, long-suffering and compassionate. He is Authority but rooted and established in love.

Sometimes His love allows the storm (or a delay for the weather to break), because He needs us to see something about Him, ourselves or others.

What do I mean by that?

Well, I have come to know God’s faithfulness only in times when I needed Him to show Himself MOST faithful. I got to know Him best when I was at my worst. The hard times have helped me to know how sweet and good God truly is, Love immeasurable as He ministered to my heart in a tenderness that is indescribable unless you experience it.

The best way to describe it:  fully known, fully seen.  God is aware of me.

God is aware of you.

He loves us immensely!

When God has allowed storms (plural, yes plural for us all), He has shown me I am stronger than I ever imagined. He has shown me areas I need to work on. He has revealed to me how much I have grown over time with Him. He opened my eyes to how my reaction to a situation isn’t the same, because with Christ I’m not the same. I can have peace. I can have joy. I can love.  You can too.  They’re all choices possible because God dwells in me and in you.

And if you ever want to be a part of God revealing His glory to a non-saved world, weather a storm well and let them see what a difference Christ makes in our lives.

Life with God is a GAME-CHANGER! 

It’s how we help others most.  Let them see the face of God show up for us in a stormy season.  They might not understand it, but they’ll definitely notice it. When they do, we’re giving them a glimpse of God. What greater gift is there?

Prayer is relationship, conversation with God. Those special, often private talks with Him help us hold steady in a storm.

Rest To A Storm and Through A Storm to Spring Forward with God

The second idea to explore is rest. We need to rest to a storm and through a storm to spring forward with God.  Two things come to mind: literal rest and peace.

When we are well rested, we are at our best. It’s not lazy to take a break. We all need one. Even the seasons show us by their example. Grass lies dormant for a time, so it can grow strong. There will be a season for it to absorb rain. To grow. Quickly. And then there will be a need to weather another dry season. Us too. We rest. We grow quickly. We weather dry seasons.

Rest to a storm is a part of natural rhythms. 

For a do-er like me, this one isn’t always easy. I have to be extremely intentional and hold a strong boundary for myself. I know it. I know I need rest, that I’m not always great at it, but I am at my best when I grant myself permission to do so.

Crash and burn one too many times and a woman learns.  If I attempt life like a whirlwind, I will be an emotional wreck.

Rest allows me to better roll with life’s punches.

I can play. I can create. I can enjoy life. Those things are part of God’s design too.

I am the worst task master of my life. When I allow God to assign tasks, He makes sure to include the ever-important one of rest.  Otherwise, we’re just trying too hard and in our own strength.  An awful combination that is certain to help us self-combust.

When we commit to follow God’s command to rest, we convey trust in Him.  When we don’t? We’re saying we don’t.

Now that will cause us to sit up straight and think.

When we feel we can’t rest, we feel we can’t trust God with an outcome, with our future, with our life.

When we rest, we say to God, “I trust you and I know you have this, because you have me always in Your sight.”

When we rest to a storm we have enough energy to endure a storm.

Rest to a storm is how we rest through a storm.

When we are well rested we are able to process emotions in a healthier fashion. Well rested women make wise decisions.

Well rested women know well the power of running into the Prince of Peace’s arms to let Him do the heavy lifting.

One of my girlfriends comes to mind. She is a prayer warrior, a spiritual ambassador for so many as she fights for them through prayer. She uses those same weapons in her own life and for her own family. As I watch her navigate a difficult storm right now, you wouldn’t even know she had a care in the world.

If a care tries to creep in, she lifts it to the Lord and keeps in His perfect peace.

We’re not talking a little mole hill.

We’re talking a mountain.

She’s faced several. (You too?)

But still, she prays and fights the spiritual battle.  She’s a beautiful spiritual sister to have in your circle of friends. I don’t know if she knows how brave she is …. I’m sensing I have an assignment: to tell her. “You’re brave!”

Perhaps there’s nothing braver we can do: rest in God’s perfect peace when we’re in the middle of a storm.

If that’s you, you have an assignment. Cuddle up into the lap of Jesus. Let Him keep you and sustain you. Let His comfort and provision guide you to the center of His perfect peace.  Breathe. Breathe again. Breathe Him in. Deeply.

I imagine you won’t just spring forward with God when you do. Rather, you’ll launch your life forward further and faster than you could fathom. It’s odd how peace does that. But it does.

Peace.

Sit in it a moment longer.

Peace.

Know That You Are Rooted & Established in Love to Spring Forward with God

If I could write about any verses in the bible, it might be these.  I’ve written about them many times before, because they have such significance to our spiritual formation. We can only spring forward with God when we understand the depths of His love for us.

I can’t say it better than His Word.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge─that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.─Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV

Filled to the measure of all God’s fullness.  It’s hard to imagine how full that actually is─ at capacity, no more room, overflowing. God’s love for you and me is abounding, stuffed and stretched beyond understanding and uncontainable. There isn’t a vessel big enough or space large enough to hold His love for you or for me.

When we know that and believe it in our heart, we spring forward with God no matter what life throws our way.

God’s love gives us THE competitive advantage over life’s challenges.

I wrote this in my prayer journal recently and want to share it with you in closing.

I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I know You hold me in it.

You might not know what tomorrow holds, but know that you are held by God in it. He is the gentle Lamb of God who guides us in life and helps us see and enjoy the tulips waving to us in the wind. Their fragrant aroma reminds us of Him. His promise to be with us in every season.

How is God calling you to spring forward with Him? Prayer, Rest, Knowledge of His Love? Which one resonates with you  most today? Turn it over. Explore it. Hold it up to the Light of Christ and let Him reveal Himself and His purposes to you.

And remember the Lamb has already defeated the lion, no matter how much the wind blows.

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